Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971, which is not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, it seems the battery died in the weather station just at the critical moment.
While the continental USA has a mild winter and has set a number of high temperature records in the last week and pundits ponder whether they will be blaming the dreaded “global warming” for those temperatures, Alaska and Canada have been suffering through some of the coldest temperatures on record during the last week.
For example in Circle Hot Springs, AK on Sunday, 29 Jan 2012 the HIGH temperature was a blistering -49°F, breaking the -44°F record which has stood since 1917. It gets better.
That same day in Circle Hot Springs the low temperature was -58°F breaking the old record of -52°F set in 1941 by six degrees.
Here’s a list of temperature records in Alaska from the past week:
Brrr!
While all that was happening, the weather station in Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971. That’s not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, the weather station stopped reporting at -79°F.
Here’s the data feed at that moment:
2012-01-28 14:20:00,1028.30,-75.0,-87.6,39,,,1021.19,-55.3,-57.7,85,1.5,155 2012-01-28 14:35:00,1028.00,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1021.19,-54.2,-65.3,48,1.5,155 2012-01-28 14:50:00,1027.90,-75.0,-87.6,39,,,1021.84,-54.2,-67.8,40,1.5,155 2012-01-28 16:05:00,1027.40,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.74,-57.0,-68.2,47,1.7,160 2012-01-28 16:35:00,1027.10,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.74,-54.6,-59.0,75,1.7,160 2012-01-28 16:51:00,1027.10,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.74,-54.6,-59.0,75,1.7,160 2012-01-28 17:05:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.10,-56.0,-67.2,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 17:20:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.10,-56.0,-67.2,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 17:49:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.30,-54.7,-66.0,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 18:04:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1019.33,-55.8,-67.2,47,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:19:00,1027.10,-79.0,-91.6,38,,,1019.30,-55.8,-71.0,36,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:34:00,1026.90,-79.0,-91.6,38,,,1019.28,-54.6,-67.9,41,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:49:00,1026.90,,,,,,1019.30,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:04:00,1026.80,,,,,,1019.39,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:19:00,1026.80,,,,,,1019.39,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:34:00,1026.60,,,,,,1018.84,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:49:00,1026.30,,,,,,1018.84,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:04:00,1026.20,,,,,,1018.45,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:19:00,1026.20,,,,,,1018.46,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:34:00,1025.70,,,,,,1018.46,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:50:00,1025.70,,,,,,1018.46,,,,,
Note at 18:49 on 1/28/12 it stopped reporting all data except barometric pressure.
Some background on the equipment tells us the likely cause.
The station is the venerable Vantage Pro2 by Davis Instruments, arguably one of the best weather stations available to consumers. I have deployed several myself and put them online, for example here and here. They are hardy, accurate, and well constructed, being manufactured in the USA in Hayward, CA instead of some Chinese gadget mill. They also have NIST traceability on sensors.
The Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) communicates wirelessly with the console below, and the console has an optional PC and/or standalone Internet interface (for DSL/Cable modems) attached.
This station at weather station in Jim River, AK was recording temperatures in conditions way out of its design spec, it only goes to –40 F
From: http://davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-249_IM_06152.pdf
Appendix B: Specifications Complete specifications for the ISS and other products are available in the Weather Support section of our website at www.davisnet.com. Cabled ISS Temperature range: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -40 to 150° Fahrenheit (-40 to 65° Celsius) Power input: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Console Cable from Vantage Pro2 console Optional Vantage Pro2 AC power adapter Wireless ISS Temperature range: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -40 to 150° Fahrenheit (-40 to 65° Celsius)
While they operate on solar power during the day, these units have an internal lithium battery for operation at night and through extended cloudy periods.
I suspect the internal CR123A Lithium 3 volt battery in the outside ISS died. Note that on 2012-01-28 18:49:00 the data for barometric pressure is still reporting after temperature and other values die. At that temperature, the battery likely could not sustain enough voltage to keep the transmitter running.
The barometric pressure sensor is in the internal LCD console, inside the house/office where the unit is connected to the Internet. All other sensors are outside in the ISS.
The CR123A Lithium 3 volt battery specifications are:
3V 1400mAh Lithium Battery
Wide operating temperature range: -40°C to 85°C
So it was operating way out of spec as well.
Some people have emailed me wondering about why the readings at Jim River, AK stopped just shy of a new all time record. I don’t see any nefarious motive here, just simple equipment failure under extraordinary extreme conditions combined with Murphy’s Law.
Let’s hope the observer there has a backup thermometer, but who’d want to go outside in cold like that to read it?
h/t to Dr. Ryan Maue and Joe D’Aleo
BTW, if you want one of these splendid weather stations, you can get them here. Details here.
UPDATE: The NWS in Fairbanks moves quickly to disavow the temperature report. I suppose the Drudge link has the phones ringing off the hook. But here’s the interesting thing, the nearest other “official” station, PAPR at Prospect Creek Airport, AK only 0.9 miles away, is also offline.
Data Status
Over the last 28 days, no data was seen on the following dates: 2012-01-04 to 2012-01-16, 2012-01-18 to 2012-01-20, 2012-01-22 to 2012-01-29.
It would be interesting to see how they defend an official airport station failure.
NOAK49 PAFG 302352 PNSAFG AKZ219-222-311200- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK 252 PM AKST MON JAN 30 2012 ...CLARIFICATION OF TEMPERATURES FROM JIM RIVER DOT CAMP... TEMPERATURES THIS PAST WEEKEND AT THE ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION JIM RIVER MAINTENANCE CAMP AT MILE 138 DALTON HIGHWAY...STATION JMTA2...HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS LOW AS 79 BELOW. THE TEMPERATURES ARE NOT CORRECT. THE WEATHER STATION IN USE AT THE JIM RIVER DOT CAMP IS A PERSONAL WEATHER STATION THAT IS NOT RATED FOR TEMPERATURE COLDER THAN 40 BELOW. THE UNREALISTICALLY LOW TEMPERATURES ARE BELIEVED TO BE A FUNCTION OF THE BATTERY FAILING AT VERY LOW TEMPERATURES. THERE ARE NO OFFICIAL...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STANDARD... TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS AT JIM RIVER DOT CAMP.$$ RT/JL JAN 12
UPDATE2 1/31/2012 9:30AM PST
According to Gladstone and NCDC MMS, PAPR (Prospect Creek, just 0.9 mile from Jim River DOT station, and holder of the low temperature record from 1971) is an AWOS station, part of the “B” COOP network.
https://mi3.ncdc.noaa.gov/mi3qry/identityGrid.cfm?setCookie=1&fid=22862
Details on AWOS:
http://www.allweatherinc.com/aviation/awos_dom.html
and as I understand it, it is not rated to –80F, the specs for the thermistor say:
Ambient Temperature Sensor.
The sensor shall be thermally isolated in a
motor aspirated radiation shield to accurately measure air temperature.
A. Range. From –40C to +60C (-40 oF t o +140 oF)
B. Accuracy. ±0.3C.
C. Resolution. 1 oF.
Source: http://www.allweatherinc.com/pdf/awos_level_iii.pdf
So, given the official equipment there at Prospect Creek, it seems NOAA has either purposely or unintentionally created an impossibility of the Prospect Creek record of ever having been broken there again.
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Fake global warming, yet another violation of our rights. The gov’t constantly violates our rights.
They violate the 1st Amendment by caging protesters and banning books like “America Deceived II”.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by allowing TSA to grope you.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars.
Impeach Obama, support Ron Paul.
Last link of “America Deceived II” before it is completely banned:
http://www.amazon.com/America-Deceived-II-Possession-interrogation/dp/1450257437
LEL says:
“Fortunately for them, the caribou have the oil pipeline for a little extra warmth.”
Remember all the hue and cry over how the proposed ANWR pipeline was going to impact all the caribou? It turns out that the proposed ANWR oil field is only 3.13 square miles. And the caribou are doing just fine.
I love this blog.
Bernd Felsche: That was a fascinating engineering solution you proposed. Might I suggest an alternative? Select a different battery chemistry, one that continues to function at adequate voltages to -80F or -100F. If that requires a larger battery because the power density is lower than lithium-ion, so be it. The mounting posts for weather stations are usually steel. They can handle the additional load. I suggest lithium/sulfur-dioxide.
That’s already sown up. By minimising or ignoring all other possible factors and tuning their models to only respond in any significant way to CO2/CH4 for warming and aerosols for cooling (cf today’s claim (or “conclusion” if you’re Richard Black) that volcanoes caused the ‘Little Ice Age’), any temperature change at all can be blamed either on China’s dirty coal or the West’s scrubbed coal. Get those death trains off the tracks and we can live in Hansen’s blissful world of unchanging perfect climate forever.
Low solar activity lately. Few sunspots. Cold Arctic air. Correlation?
rwct says:
January 30, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Sometimes, I ponder the question, as to why GREEN-land was named such, centuries ago
==================================
The Tyndall Effect
That cold air will have to break free at some point, and move south. Depending on the upper air, that’s where it goes, and usually the US east coast. It’s a hard guess on the extent or probability, given the station surface baros in the 1020’s mb range. The real bad ones have much higher surface baro readings. Sometimes well over 1040 mb. When these break free, it’s a major CONUS cold event.
The last several years, Florida winters have had more instances where temperatures have reached the 20’s, overnight. We’ve already had two reaching 28*F, though it’s been fast to clear the area. (One day we had 28*F pre-dawn to 74*F by afternoon!)
I’ve got a Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station with ISS. This is a good one, and repairable vs. having to replace the whole thing. Mine’s been in service since 2005, and I’ve only had to replace a couple parts on it: the thermometer chip and the UV sensor. They give you a discount if you call the service desk and ship back the non-working component. It’s not cheap, but worth the investment and maintainable.
It’s survived some pretty heavy Florida storms here. We are on the line where they hit their peak and the lightning makes you doubt if you are safe inside your house. Fortunately the weather station is wireless and on a different band than 2.4GHz WiFi. One less way for lightning to get in your house, and no interference or missed readings.
I also have the PC software to archive the data from the Davis, along with WSR-88D radar software from Gibson Ridge. The latter is awesome for radar, hands down.
Take care…
–Robert
So, once this becomes standard equipment, there will never again be an official temperature recording lower than -40? Well, I suppose nobody at NOAA thought they’d be any likelihood of such temperatures happening again, what with runaway warming and polar amplification. How convenient…
I was just a kid when we lived in central Alaska in the early 1960’s, but I think it reached minus 40 degrees and we still walked to school. At least that is the way I remember it. I also seem to remember something about it being a dry cold instead of a humid cold, so it was more bearable. And we wore lots of layers of clothing beneath our parka’s. Alaska was great, the most beautiful state I have ever lived in…
No brainer; the solution is a small burial vault (assuming ground temperatures do not drop below -40 C, but, this raises the costs considerably, both of the equipment and the installation, provisions for water-proofing, drainage, etc)
.
Some of us can still recall the seventies it seems-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming–Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html
And while Big Oil fight a noble rearguard action it seems there is no stopping Colossal Climate with their windmills and solar panels from killing us all with good intentions. Up to 36 now and counting-
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/winter-cold-snap-kills-36-in-europe/story-e6frfku0-1226257859597
Looks like technology development re LOW TEMP LCD displays,and Lithium batteries,has not progressed that much,since I retired. LCD,LOW TEMP displays,at -40 has an update rate measured in- Decades, and Lithium battery “HOLD” charge,is, what can one say,VERY temporary,at these temps. I KNOW! I had to try to keep instruments operating at these temps. Accuracy,if operating at all,maybe +/- 10% So DUMB. LCD – LIQUID Crystal Display. DUUHHH!
P/S Peddlars/Mfgs came out with the NEW[as compared to -20F] Low temp LCD good to -40. WHAT a crock! Marketing can ALWAYS trump PHSYICS- FOR A TIME!
REPLY: Your post is irrelevant because it misses the fact that the LCD display is indoors, and the ISS with all the sensors is outside – Anthony
Ela : I live in a small cabin outside North Pole, Alaska
There is NO WAY I could do that. Thank you for giving me permission to stay home. I’m not the least bit insulted. I know my limits even if I envy you yours.
(but it would be really cool if you could post some pics!)
nother likely candidate is the brief solar day, not enough sun for the built in solar cells to keep the Li batt charged.
Henry.
This brings two questions to my mind:
1. Is carbon dioxide less effective as a greenhouse gas at -79 F than at more normal temperatures due to its main absorption bands?
2. Does the ground emit less of the appropriate radiation at -79 F, thus reducing the effectiveness of carbon dioxide this way?
(The amount of water vapor would be virtually non-existent at this temperature.)
Anybody with access to a small Tenny temp chamber and a Davis Wx station that could run a short test at cold temperature for us?
I would if I was still at C*sc*/WNBU and had access to the enviro-testing gear …
.
I’m with Sarah Silverman. Global warming will benefit humanity like hiking Mt. Everest in casual clothes and shorts would be great.
Once upon a time at the the T.A.P.S. Prospect Creek Camp in 1971 near the Jim River there was a weather station with a coupla mercury thermometers in a standard weather box that were read at least twice a day. This was a time before Lithium batteries. So the camp manager would suit up in parka, overalls, and bunny boots a tromp out with a flashlight to have a look. Then back into the camp office to record the temp and time and report via single side band to Radio Fairbanks at the scheduled time. In December 1972 I was at Prospect Creek Camp and saw and read the same MERCURY thermometers. For the life of me, I could not find a place for batteries. BTW, in a five hour period we watched the temperature plummet from +34°F to -64°F. This noted both with calibrated thermisters and mercury thermometers. For what it’s worth.
Was this in the lunchroom – in the microwave oven?
Or out on the roof, in front of the RADAR penthouse ‘bays’ (bay windows bulging out from the wall of the building; TI had those installed in the penthouse on the “North Building” for Equipment Group/DSEG operations)?
.
“JRG says:
January 30, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Bernd Felsche: That was a fascinating engineering solution you proposed. Might I suggest an alternative? Select a different battery chemistry, one that continues to function at adequate voltages to -80F or -100F. If that requires a larger battery because the power density is lower than lithium-ion, so be it. The mounting posts for weather stations are usually steel. They can handle the additional load. I suggest lithium/sulfur-dioxide.”
I just read NOAA is no longer interested measuring temperatures lower than minus 40 degrees F
See
“Mark Albright says:
January 30, 2012 at 5:34 pm
This just came into my inbox from Rick Thoman with NOAA:
THERE IS NO RECORD LOW AT JIM RIVER
These temperatures are from a Davis Weather Station and the voltage from the lithium battery drops dramatically with temps below -50 and the result is bogus low temperatures. Davis makes no claims on temperatures below -40 and recent firmware changes keep the units from reporting colder than about -40F. The unit at Jim River has not had that firmware change installed.
This is exactly the same problem as in Tok in January 2009.
To repeat, the reported temperatures from Jim River are WRONG.
Rick”
It looks like Alaska is going to remain it’s red color at NOAA’s temperature maps.
Don’t forget the other day that solar storm and ejecta may have contributed to a reaction by out mother earth. She still has tremendous power and will live with or without us. Notice that barometer still dropping? WOW.
The coldest I’ve ever experienced was in Ft McMurray. It was -40, C or F I don’t recall. I rememeber that Hertz couldn’t start the 4WD I had reserved.
REPLY: At -40 the C and F scale meet numerically, there’s no difference. So, you are right either way – Anthony
SarahSilverman [<–??] says:
"I’m with Sarah Silverman. [<–??] Global warming will benefit humanity like hiking Mt. Everest in casual clothes and shorts would be great."
Global warming is on balance a good thing. The planet has been much warmer in the past, with no problems. The biosphere thrived during those warmer periods.
If the planet warmed two or three degrees, millions of acres of new farmland would be opened up in places like Siberia, Mongolia, Canada and Alaska. Warmer weather would increase evaporation, thus increasing rainfall. And with more [harmless, beneficial] CO2, plants would have more airborne fertilizer.
The eco-zealot crowd has dishonestly demonized “carbon”. But the truth is that CO2 is a completely harmless trace gas, and it increases agricultural productivity.
Noticed that too … Identity crises (dissociative identity disorder?) no doubt; an anomaly of the conflicted, an exhibition as a result of cognitive dissonance re: CAGW and demonstrated warming, the Met predicting a Dalton Minimum etc …
“Phone call(s) for Sybil; you have Sybil(s) on lines 1 thru 8 …”
.